Meta removes Khaira’s videos over bungalow charges; MLA threatens legal action
Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh KhairaPatiala: Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has served Meta Platforms Inc with a legal notice demanding restoration of four Facebook and Instagram videos removed following a...
Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira Patiala: Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has served Meta Platforms Inc with a legal notice demanding restoration of four Facebook and Instagram videos removed following a Punjab Police communication, threatening court proceedings if the company fails to comply within three days.
The notice, served through Punjab and Haryana high court counsel Sarabjot Singh Cheema, challenges Meta’s decision to remove and restrict the posts following a Sept 27 notice from Punjab Police State Cyber Crime Coordination Centre. The controversy began in late Sept after Khaira alleged a Rajasthan AAP functionary and other non-Punjab party appointees were unauthorisedly occupying Chandigarh govt bungalows allotted to Punjab cabinet ministers and using state resources and security at taxpayers’ expense.
The functionary denied the allegations, saying she was temporarily staying with her parents at a Punjab minister’s official residence, with his permission, to facilitate her ailing father’s treatment in Chandigarh. She accused Khaira of character assassination and derogatory remarks against a woman leader before filing a police complaint.
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Punjab State Commission for Women chairperson Raj Lali Gill also took cognisance. “Punjab Police booked Khaira under BNS Sections 75(1)(iv), 75(3), 79 and 351, and Section 67 of the IT Act. Requisitions were sent to X and Meta.
X declined to remove the posts, while Meta deleted them,” said advocate Cheema. Khaira’s legal team questioned Punjab Police’s jurisdiction, saying the videos were not recorded in Punjab and the allegedly aggrieved Rajasthan AAP functionary lived at a ministerial bungalow in Sector 39-C, Chandigarh, outside Punjab Police’s territorial jurisdiction.
Khaira alleged Meta acted mechanically and unlawfully on a vague intimation stating only that a case had been registered, without providing an FIR number, date, police station, complainant’s identity or complaint copy. The notice claimed the police communication violated Rule 3(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
It said an intimation requiring an intermediary to disable unlawful content must be issued by an authorised officer not below the rank of deputy inspector general of police. Punjab home affairs department had designated cyber crime wing as the nodal agency and additional director general of police, cyber crime, as nodal officer through an order dated Sept 2, 2024.
However, the requisition sent to Meta was signed by an inspector-level officer, the notice claimed.
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